Team Kage
by PyrothTenka
Summary: After the battle with Madara and the Juubi, a fierce argument starts between Naruto and Sasuke over who will become the next Hokage when Tsunade brings up a startling complication. They're both still Genin.
1. After

**That A/N I put at the beginning of all my stories to apologize for being crazy: ** I'm not actually starting a new story here, I just had this sitting in my documents and Duesal10, Igornerd, and Blaizekit convinced me I should post it. Maybe after I finish M:TABD I'll do something more with it, but for now, enjoy the beginnings of what promises to be some S-rank crazy.

And sorry for being crazy. D: Warning: Probably laced with at least a little bit of crack, this story. XD But probably no more than the original series is.

* * *

**Chapter One: After**

"Tsunade obaa-chan!" A familiar voice shouted, making the fifth Hokage growl in annoyance and her ANBU guards stiffen as an orange blur appeared on the window. She turned a glare on him, but Naruto ignored it, stepping into the room without waiting for permission. "I'm your heir, right? Tell that teme I'm next in line after you and he can wait for me to kick the bucket!"

"Hmph, like anyone would put a dobe like you in charge," another voice retorted, making Tsunade and her bodyguards jump as they whirled to face the previously unnoticed presence of Uchiha Sasuke seemingly melt from the shadows in the corner.

_Damn ninjas,_ Tsunade muttered in her head, _they'll be the death of me. _Out loud she said, "Naruto, stop calling me that! And you two, quit coming into my office unannounced!"

"Eh? But it's just Gaara and Shikamaru's girlfriend. Hi Gaara!"

The Kazekage nodded in greeting, "Naruto."

The girl beside him stiffened, and Tsunade fought the urge to facepalm as the sand kunoichi turned red and exploded. "I told you we're not- We're just working together to organized the Chunin exams!"

Tsunade closed her eyes as she tried to think up the best way to get rid of the two that had been dogging her since the day after the fight with Madara. It seemed they were in her office every day to name one of them her successor. She was half tempted to retire right then and there and see which one survived the paperwork. Nah, it was probably too unprofessional to retire and start a succession crisis in the middle of a meeting with the Kazekage. Not that Gaara had ever been one to care about that sort of thing.

Around her she could hear the two's argument heating up as the sand siblings looked on in mild curiosity. The third sibling would have also been there, but had been... kidnapped as soon as the village children had been made aware of his presence.

She wished she had a nice S-class mission she could send them on, something Naruto couldn't just send a kage bunshin out to do while he stayed here and pestered her. Unfortunately she didn't. She sighed inwardly. All she wanted to do was finish the final executive decisions required of her before passing the Chunin exams onto the other chunin to handle.

It was then that the idea came to her. It was the desperate idea of a woman at the end of her rope, but it was there. An evil, sadistic, _brilliant, _idea. She managed to keep her maniacal laughter inside her head but couldn't resist steepling her fingers with malicious intent.

"You know, Naruto," she began, instantly earning the attention of everyone in the room, "you're absolutely right."

"I am?"

"Oh, yes. It is way past time I named a successor." Never mind the fact that she couldn't actually do that. As she'd repeatedly tried to explain to him, Hokages were elected by the council, not chosen by her; though her consideration would be taken into account. It wasn't her fault he hadn't listened to her.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered.

_Oh, don't cheer yet,_ she mused. "It's just too bad I can't seem to find anyone qualified."

The moment of silent shock in the room was almost as priceless as the look on Naruto's face. It took him almost a whole fifteen seconds before he could find his voice. "Are you going senile, old hag? I'm right here! Me!"

Sasuke snorted but otherwise remained in broody silence.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you don't qualify. For the same reason Sasuke doesn't," the Godaime explained. Enjoying the baffled looks exchanged between the two, she went on. "You're both still Genin."

This time the silence lasted only a second before Temari laughed. "No way! That's just... you guys never passed the chuunin exam?"

"Hey! I was busy training!" Naruto protested. Sasuke didn't say anything but Tsunade could tell by the scowl on his face, he didn't think he was going to like where this conversation was headed.

"Still," Tsunade interrupted again, "this is easy enough to fix."

"You're giving us a promotion?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Sure."

"Yes!"

"Just as soon as you pass your chuunin exam."

"What?! Obaa-chan, that's not fair!"

Tsunade smirked as she raised an eyebrow. "And promoting you out of the blue while every other genin in the village has to take the exam is?"

"But... but..." Naruto sputtered, glancing around at the other occupants of the room for help. "We're like the strongest ninja in the village!"

"All the more reason you should be ashamed of yourself for not passing the exam sooner. Honestly. I'm sure Madara and Pain are rolling in their graves right now at having been defeated by a genin."

Naruto scowled as he tried to think up another argument. "Oi, Sasuke-teme, say something!"

"Hmph," The Uchiha replied, "If this is what it takes to become Hokage..."

"Yeah! You're right. We'll take your stupid test, old hag! And we're going to ace it!"

"Great. Good luck finding a third genin for your team who isn't already in one." That should keep them out of her hair for a while. Leaving the two of them to puzzle over the dilemma of finding their third teammate, she turned back to the Kazekage in hopes of getting some real work done. Temari seemed to have other things on her mind.

"Actually," the blonde kunoichi spoke up, tapping her lips thoughtfully and giving her brother a sly look. "Now that you mention it, Hokage-sama, Gaara never passed the exams either."

The sand user shot her a sharp look that would have had her quailing in fear just a few years before, but now merely caused her to blink back at him in feigned innocence. She had a good twelve years of big sister annoying-ness to catch up on, and this seemed like a golden opportunity.

"Really?" Naruto asked, his face lighting up hopefully.

Gaara turned his gaze back toward his blonde friend and inclined his head ever so slightly. "Yes."

"Great! Then that makes three! The chuunin exams won't even know what hit them!" Naruto cheered

"Naruto!" Tsunade barked out, scandalized. "You _can't_ have the _Kazekage_ on your team for the chuunin exam!"

"Why not? You just said it wasn't fair to everyone else to allow people to skip the exam! How can he be a fair leader if he ignores the rules? This way his people can trust him more!"

Tsunade scowled back at him for twisting her logic back on her and scrambled for another argument. "He's the Kazekage, and, as such, not my jurisdiction. How Suna handles rank promotion is up to them and I won-"

"I'll do it," Gaara interrupted. "Naruto is right. I will not ask something of my people I would not ask of myself."

Giving up on hiding her irritation, Tsunade sank down into her chair and began massaging her temples. "You... are you even aware of the political ramifications?"

She was ignored, however, when an over-excited orange blur rushed forward to link one arm with Gaara's, and other other with Sasuke's before dragging them both out of her office; all the while babbling some nonsense about how he had the best team ever in the history of ever. Even if one of them was Sasuke-teme.

Tsunade stared after them with something of a mix between horror and awe. What had she just unleashed upon those poor unsuspecting genin?

* * *

**A/N (The real one): ** There you go. S-rank crazy ftw. I love Gaara... Poor Tsunade...

Chapter two is already mostly written and I have a few days off of work. Maybe I'll be able to finish it? XD

You guys will be surprised who ends up being their Jounin sensei. X3

**Story Rec (because I can and my list of stories to rec is getting longish):**

**Kitsune** by **EmptySurface** - I already put one of his stories up in M:TABD, but this one is really good too! I"ll just post the summary because I'm trying to hurry up and post this and go get stuff done:

"When finding himself stranded in the past, what is a man supposed to do? Surrounded by old friends who are younger than you remember, and without anyone to lean on, life becomes a challenge. Will he be able to forge new friendships and change the course of the future, to prevent the blood soaked world he came from? Failure equals death and mindless destruction. Time-travel."

It's awesome, and I love this guy's(girl's? Sorry, I don't know your gender. DX) writing style. Hasn't been updated in a few months, but still worth checking out. :3

-Py


	2. Before

**Super awesome betas who may have been laughing too hard to actually catch all of my mistakes: Igornerd, Blaizekit, Duesal10**

**Chapter Two: Before**

The day of the chuunin exams came far too slowly for Tsunade's liking. It was true Naruto and Sasuke were no longer pestering her to name an heir, but that was hardly any relief when it came with the abduction of the Kazekage. The only reason there hadn't yet been an international incident was because Temari, the starter of all the trouble as far as the Hokage was concerned, had explained everything to her brother. Together, the two of them had managed to soothe the Kazekage's guards.

It had been a nerve-wracking four days, during which the three had disappeared off of the face of the Earth. If they didn't show up to this chuunin exam, there was a very real prospect of a war with Suna on their hands. If they didn't show up, Tsunade was going to hunt them down and tear them apart limb from limb.

It was with such thoughts in mind that the Hokage paced in front of the window looking out over the academy entrance to the exam registration. Beneath her she watched the various Genin assemble for the exam. There were a few familiar faces but mostly she waited for the tell-tale blonde spiky hair. It was not Tsunade, however, who spotted them first.

"NARUTO!" an angry voice shouted, causing all the genin to turn their heads and watch an irate pink-haired jounin storm up to the approaching genin in bright orange. It was comical to watch as the blonde cowered behind his smaller, red-headed teammate.

"Gaara! Save me! She's gonna kill me 'ttebayo!"

The human shield barely spared his cowering companion a glance before nodding amicably to the jounin kunoichi. "Sakura."

"Hi, Gaara-san," Sakura greeted him sweetly, her face morphing from murderous to cheerful as if some sort of switch had been flipped. "Would you mind terribly stepping aside so that I might have a few words with my ex-teammates, please?"

Dark-ringed green eyes regarded her for a moment of consideration before giving the girl another nod and taking one purposeful step to the side, exposing the blonde behind him.

Quick as a snake, Sakura's hands whipped out to snag Sasuke's and Naruto's earlobes. Heedless of the bewildered looks they were receiving from the genin around them, the pink-haired girl dragged the two boys along behind her as she ducked back into the building. Gaara followed after them.

"Okay," Sakura began, having dragged them into an unused classroom on the upper level and placed a privacy seal on the door. "What's this I hear about you entering the chuunin exams?!"

Naruto rubbed his ear surreptitiously, as he eyed her warily for signs of another attack. "Tsunade obaasan said I can't become Hokage as a genin, so I'm taking the exams. I need a team of three and Sasuke-teme and Gaara never passed either, so... here we are."

"Sensei _allowed_ this?!" Sakura gasped incredulously.

"Of course!" Naruto replied. "It was her idea!"

The door slid open, and in strode the Hokage as well as two teams of ANBU. One squad went to go stand by Gaara. "Kazekage-sama. Are you alright?"

"I am fine," the sand-nin answered in his typical monotone. "I will not require guards for the remainder of the exam duration. Your orders are to look after my siblings until they are over. Dismissed."

It was a sign of how well-trained they were that they made no protest before disappearing on their new assignment. Tsunade dismissed her own ANBU with a gesture and turned to regard the teens with a frown. "You guys are serious about this?"

She only waited long enough for them to nod before continuing. "Then I need to lay down some ground rules."

"Why do _we_ get extra rules?" Naruto demanded, scowling unhappily.

"Because as future Hokage, you won't mind being held to a higher standard than everyone else," she snapped back at him. "Now first, I know that usually deaths in the exams aren't exactly uncommon. However, if any genin die before the final exam, your team will automatically fail."

"You expect us to keep them from killing each other?" Sasuke asked with a grimace.

"And I expect you to do it without the other teams realizing they're being looked after."

Gaara nodded in comprehension. "I see. This is practice for being Hokage, a protector of their village, while still maintaining the exam's life threatening atmosphere. I agree to this rule."

"Oh, alright," Naruto conceded. "Not like I would have let anyone die anyway. Now I just gotta make extra sure."

Sasuke made a noise that sounded vaguely like a 'if the dobe can do it, I can do it better.' He was good at non-verbal, monosyllabic speaking.

"Good," Tsunade said, moving on to the next rule. "Second, you can't eliminate any more teams than absolutely necessary for you to pass. I already know you could quite possibly knock out every other team in the second, if not first, exam. Just because you guys are S-class power houses doesn't mean everyone else shouldn't have a chance to pass. Since you're aiming to become Hokage, I hope you can see the wisdom of this and use good judgement accordingly."

The last part was aimed specifically at the two leaf-nins but Gaara nodded along with them anyway. He was a part of the team, the rules applied to him as well as far as he was concerned.

Tsunade took another few moments to try and think up anything else that needed to be covered, but nothing else came to mind. She sighed. "There may be more rules added as the exams progress, but for now... you guys may proceed."

She turned and left with a grumpy mutter to herself, "I need a drink..."

* * *

The first obstacle on their path almost proved too much for the team of living legends.

"Whaaaaaat, this is ridiculous, dattebayo!"

"Hn."

"Registration ends in five minutes."

"I know, Gaara, I can see the clock right there!"

"Then what's your plan, dobe?"

"I don't- Just let me think, alright!"

"Think faster, idiot."

"Teme-! I don't see _you_ coming up with- Oh, hey, Gaara, don't you have anyone that could...?"

"No. All of my subordinates are otherwise preoccupied or too far away."

"Right, right...," the blonde let out a frustrated huff as he ran a hand through his messy hair and turned to scan the room for something, _anything_, that might help them. He ignored the looks of utter bafflement -and in the case of some of the brighter ones, dawning horror- on the genin around them, and, just as he was about to think their cause hopeless, he spotted her.

There, standing against a backdrop of light that almost seemed to make her glow with divine radiance, stood the pink-haloed answer to his prayers. His face split into a wide grin.

Sasuke noticed the expression and, when he'd followed Naruto's gaze and drawn the same conclusion, he hissed, "No! We are not that desperate!"

"Four minutes."

"Yes, Sasuke, we really _are_ that desperate," the blonde replied, then stepped forward. "Sakura-chan!" he called out in the most charming voice he could muster.

The kunoichi straightened from where she had been scolding a pair of genin for scuffling in the halls to fix her ex-teammate with a wary look. The two errant shinobi took that opportunity to slink off, but she hardly noticed as she watched the teens approach.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are lately? How much of an amazing medic you are and how-"

"What do you want, Naruto," she interrupted him flatly. It wasn't a question so much as a demand. Her expression made it clear that he'd better get to the point quickly or else.

"Eheheh... well, you see... we ran into a bit of a problem trying to register our team, and I was wondering if you could help us with it?" He fixed her with his most adorable puppy dog eyes as he handed her their registration form, pointing to one line in particular.

Her expression turned to one of puzzlement as she read the form, then to a frown, then realization. When she glanced up at the blonde with an 'are-you-serious?' look and received a 'dead-serious' confirmation in return, she burst out laughing. As in, doubled over, had to use the wall beside her for support and could barely breathe, laughing. "You...! Want me to...! AHAHAHA-!"

"Three minutes."

"Yes, it's hilarious," Naruto spoke quickly, rolling his eyes. "We're in a hurry here, so yes or no?"

It took her several moments to contain her mirth, and every second that passed made Naruto fidget, and Sasuke's scowl to deepen. Gaara seemed the least affected, yet his gaze never wavered from the clock.

After what felt like an eternity, though it had to have been less than a minute or Gaara would have said something, Sakura straightened and sighed, looking at them thoughtfully. "I don't know... that sounds like an awfully big responsibility..."

Naruto groaned at her exaggeratedly slow words. "Oh, come on!"

"Well! If you're going to be that way about it, I'm sure I don't want such troublesome genin!"

"Two minutes."

"No! I'm sorry, I'll be good 'ttebayo!" Naruto pleaded, an edge of hysteria to his voice. "Come on, guys, help me out here!"

Sasuke looked like he'd swallowed something terribly unpleasant before schooling his features. "Sakura, we need you. Would you please be our Jounin-sensei?"

Even Gaara broke eye contact with the clock to fix her with a serious look. "We would be extremely grateful for your assistance in this."

Sakura actually blinked in surprise. That was... unexpected; they must have been really desperate. Huh, she wondered what she could get out of them for this. "Oh, alright-"

"YES! YOU'RE THE BEST, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!" Naruto shouted, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"BUT-!" Sakura was quick to interrupt, "You have to address me accordingly."

"Yosh, Sakura-sensei!" Naruto obeyed immediately.

Gaara inclined his head, "Sakura-sensei."

They both looked at Sasuke who reluctantly muttered a quiet, "Sakura-sensei."

Sakura smiled cheerfully. "And of course you realize that, as your superior officer, you will have to obey all my orders, correct?"

"So long as it does not conflict with my duties as Kazekage, yes," Gaara replied, the first to answer this time.

"Oh, I didn't mean you, Gaara, I meant these miscreants. Thank you, though," Sakura quickly assured him. She was just teasing her ex-teammates, she didn't actually presume to boss the Kazekage around.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged uncertain glances, and the redhead resumed staring at the clock.

"Thirty seconds."

_That_ spurred Naruto to action. "Yes, of course, I'll do whatever you say! Just sign already, dattebayo!" At her raised eyebrow, he hastily added, "Please, Sakura-sensei?"

"What about you, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, ignoring the paper the blonde was holding out to her and turning to the brunette with deceptively sweet smile.

Sasuke glared at her. He disliked being patronized.

"Fifteen seconds."

Of course, he disliked being a genin even more.

"Fine. Sakura-sensei," he bit out, only a slight pause before he remembered to add the last part.

"Yay! My first genin team! Make me proud, boys," she chirped, signing the paper with relish.

Before the ink had even had time to dry, Naruto snatched the paper and flashed across the room to slam it on the registration desk "Are we on time?!" he demanded anxiously.

The chunin kunoichi eyed the new hand-shaped dent in the desk disapprovingly before carefully lifting the paper and making a big show of examining it carefully. She then placed it neatly on the stack with the others and glanced up at the blonde. "Yes. You may proceed."

"YES!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist and heading through the double doors. "First exam, here we come!"

Their new jounin sensei watched them go before turning around and humming happily to herself. "Let's see... what can I make Sasuke and Naruto do, hm?"

And that is how Haruno Sakura became jounin sensei to an S-rank genin team.

* * *

**A/N** - Phew, chapter two done. Sorry to say, but you probably won't get another chapter to this for a while. :S M:TABD takes precedence and I really don't have time to do both at once. Maybe I'll try to take a weekend off of M:TABD every once in a while and write this? I don't know. Depends on the response to it I guess? XD

Oh! So, I have a small dilemma. I need about thirty genin OC's, and really don't want to make them all by myself. -_- SO! Who wants to make some genin OC's for me? Eh? Eh? I pretty much need a name, village, combat styles, and maybe some background if you're feeling up to it. Bloodline limits are okay, within reason, different strength levels would be nice... I reserve the right to change anything about them to make them fit better in the story... also they may be knocked out of the exam at any point in time. XD

Anyway, if you feel like sharing a genin OC with me, I'd be much obliged. :3

**Story Rec** -  
**I can teach you if you want **by **Got a jar of dirt - **"A few simple sentences can change a persons life; for better or for worse. Kakashi utters one of these simple sentences to a five year old Naruto in a chance meeting. How will this effect both their lives and the shinobi world as a whole? Brotherly!Kakashi, Believably Strong / Smart Naruto." Adorable. I love Kakashi in this one. XD

-Py


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